Log in

News

Homecoming must go on — even if the other team forfeits

Messmer/Shorewood senior Tywan Ramsey is introduced before Friday’s game against Kenosha Christian Life, which forfeited the varsity game earlier this week to protect its players. So Messwood’s varsity players coached the junior varsity on Friday.

Its foe, the Kenosha Christian Life School Eagles, playing their first year of varsity football, felt like they just weren't up to the task. Their active roster had shrunk to 19, seven of them stork-sized freshmen.

"For the safety of our boys, we do not feel appropriate playing a varsity game tonight," Christian Life Principal Troy Tennyson said.

The Eagles' head coach, Dwayne Carr, was more direct.

They were unable to overcome the three I's, he said.

"Injuries. Ineligibility. And Inexperience."

Zortman's husband, Messwood head coach Drake Zortman, was dismayed.

"It's homecoming," he said. "We've got to have a game."

So have one, Jennifer Zortman said.

Take the forfeit. But play. Just play your freshmen, sophomores and junior varsity juniors. Give them an evening of Friday Night Lights. Make your A-team — standouts such as Taylor Dennis and Tywan Ramsey — the coaches. Have fun.

Jennifer Zortman obviously doesn't know anything about high school football. It's not about playing. It's about winning. Covering yourself with glory. Becoming a middle-aged guy who gets together with other middle-aged guys to remind each other how amazing they all once were.

But coach Zortman went for the idea. So did coach Carr.

"It's not the best thing — it's not what we wanted," Drake Zortman said. "But it's the right thing."

Shorewood's athletic director, LeVar Ridgeway, noted that the love of two communities — Messmer and Shorewood — and the importance of tradition, and the joy of sport itself, all made what may seem like a meaningless game very meaningful indeed.

"It teaches such a great lesson: Serve a greater cause than yourself."

And so the game was played.

There was a homecoming parade through the village of Shorewood, one that affirmed Shorewood's reputation for quirkiness in that it finished with the high school Anime Club leading the way and chanting, "We are Anime! Mighty, mighty Anime!"

The sky faded. The big lights came on. The field turned a shade of green unmatched by anything short of Jello. Kids and parents filled the stands. The air smelled like grilled hotdogs. Trees illuminated by the stadium lights had a touch of orange in them. The air turned cool.

About Crocker Stephenson

Crocker Stephenson covers urban affairs and city government. He has won many regional and national awards for his stories concerning public health, child welfare, poverty, urban life and welfare reform.